OCC Clears National Trust Charters for Crypto Firms

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has approved and conditionally approved a series of national trust bank charters for crypto companies. Those charters authorize firms to provide fiduciary digital‑asset custody, manage stablecoin reserves and settle token transactions while not offering FDIC‑insured deposit accounts or traditional lending.

The agency granted final approval on July 10 for First National Digital Currency Bank to operate as Circle National Trust; at opening it will provide fiduciary custody for Circle and its affiliates and may manage USDC reserves. On Dec. 12, 2025, the OCC issued conditional approvals covering conversions or new national trust banks for BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos, and it gave preliminary conditional approval to a proposed Ripple National Trust Bank. Additional preliminary or conditional decisions have been issued for Bridge, Foris DAX, Crypto.com, Coinbase, Morgan Stanley and World Liberty Trust Company. Most applicants must meet capital, governance and operational conditions before they can begin operations.

A national trust bank is an existing legal form focused on fiduciary duties: holding property for others, administering assets, executing client instructions and keeping records. OCC guidance says most national trust banks do not take deposits, make loans or carry FDIC insurance. That structure is being used to provide regulated custody of private keys, segregation of customer property, administration of tokenized assets, reserve custody and redemption services for stablecoins, and settlement links between token transfers and conventional payment systems.

Federal supervision places responsibility for reserve and custody functions with a single nationally chartered entity rather than a patchwork of state licenses and third‑party banks. According to Comptroller Jonathan Gould, 23 of 40 de novo charter applications received over the prior 18 months included digital‑asset business plans, and the OCC expects to issue a final GENIUS Act rule by November.

The OCC’s approvals cover both crypto-native companies and established financial groups. The preliminary Morgan Stanley Digital Trust decision adds custody, transaction services, staking and collateral administration to the national trust bank model. The agency noted that assets under administration at uninsured national trust banks totaled $7.2 trillion as of March 31, including $1.7 trillion in custody and safekeeping accounts.

The charters separate control of tokenized property from the credit functions of commercial banks. Commercial banks collect deposits and make loans; trust banks with these charters will focus on custody and settlement without running retail deposit or lending operations. Many applicants are converting state trust companies into nationally supervised entities; others are setting up new national trust banks to consolidate custody, reserve management and settlement under one federal regulator.

Regulatory approvals are split between final, conditional and preliminary statuses. A conditional decision allows an applicant to organize and meet OCC requirements; formal opening follows after the agency confirms capital, governance and operational conditions. The resulting institutions will be nationally supervised for asset servicing roles but will not offer FDIC‑insured deposit products or traditional bank lending.